Ed Reardon's Week, Christopher Douglas & Andrew Nickolds

[Seiichi]

The back cover blurb:

Ed Reardon is one of the most scandalously neglected novelists of his generation (writes Ed Reardon). Thanks to the efforts of Ed's lunchaholic agent, Felix, and his luscious but unattainable assistant, Ping, Ed makes ends meet by writing such potential bestsellers as Jane Seymour's Household Hints, The Love Poetry of Nigel Mansell and similar titles just along from this one on the Perfect Christmas Gift shelves. He is one of Thresher's most loyal customers, but to earn a tenner for that 3 for 2 offer that keeps body and soul together, Ed is often obliged to appear in police identity parades as a suspect pervert.

 

Welcome to Ed Reardon's Week, a Diary of a Nobody for the 21st century, and a major publishing venture---though apparently not major enough to command anything but a piddling royalty (Author's note).

 

Based on the radio comedy series of the same name, Ed Reardon's Week follows the writer as he struggles to scrape a living in whatever way he can. Like his namesake from George Gissing's New Grub Street Ed is a one-hit wonder who has failed to recreate the literary success of his first novel. Sadly, Ed doesn't seem to have a second novel in him, and he gets by, accepting any writing jobs his agents will throw at him. It's not an ideal situation to be writing to a readership in a world full of 12-year-olds, but sometimes an author must compromise his artistic integrity however unwilling he may be. Ed's diary, therefore, contains the recollections and rants of literary ventures gone awry from an ageing, grumpy writer living alone with his cat.

 

Much of the humour comes from his tirades, which he delivers with flourish, and his readiness to speak his mind in front of his paymasters. Older readers may sympathise with Ed's views as he tries to resist the culture of dumbing down and appreciate what he has to say. Being impoverished also means that he sometimes finds himself being involved in unfortunate incidents, often of his own making. As would be expected, Ed writes in such a way that he makes out that he's the victim of the injustices in the world. Sometimes this is true; sometimes not. If anything, he's a victim of himself, lacking the will or resolve to change his behaviour. Then again, if he did change, the book would be much less entertaining.

 

The book contains six stories, each comprising a number of diary entries covering one or two weeks of his life. It makes for light reading, easy to pick up and put down. It's also one of the few books I remember that has made me laugh out loud.